DONNA BASSIN

Donna Bassin, PH.D., is an award- winning photographer, artist, author, professor, and filmmaker. Influenced by her work as a clinical psychologist and her experiences working with war veterans and at Ground Zero, Donna uses art to explore the creative edge of collective loss, grief, mourning, and transformation. She is known for her documentaries, Leave No Soldier and The Mourning After, and her series The Afterlife of Dolls – an exhibition that was featured on PBS' State of the Arts and received a Golden Bell and Gradiva Award. In addition, she was selected as a recipient for the 2021 New Jersey Council on the Arts Fellowship in Photography.

Her work has been shown in numerous group exhibitions stretching from New York City to Los Angeles. Her photographs have also been commissioned for book covers and private collections.

Donna has contributed portraits from her series, My Own Witness, to Smack Mellon Gallery for their exhibition of Bound Up Together: On the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment, and to the Her Flag project (www.herflag.com), where she created the stripe for New Jersey, which was displayed at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. on Flag Day of 2021.

Donna's current projects, My Own Witness: Rupture and Repair and Precious Scars, explore the human desire for reconciliation in the wake of social fractures. My Own Witness: Rupture and Repair was recently featured in the Newark Museum for the 2021 New Jersey Arts Annual: Revision and Respond as well as a solo exhibition at the Soho Photo Gallery in New York City. Precious Scars is currently on view at the Jamestown Arts Center in Jamestown, Rhode Island, as part of an exhibition entitled RAW: Reassessment and Wonder.

By Our Own Hand, an installation designed by Donna in collaboration with Frontline Arts, is on display at the Montclair Art Museum until August 2022. Inspired by Tibetan prayer flags, it consists of handmade paper made from military uniforms to serve as a reflective space.